Archive for August 2009

View larger map What: The National Bureau of Investigation in the Philippines caught a former medical sales representative selling fake Vaxigrip – a flu vaccine – throughout the country. When: July 28, 2009 Where: The Philippines, including the cities of Manila and Makati, as well as the Laguna province. Who: Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi-Aventis Group Additional…

View larger map What: More than two million counterfeit insulin needles were found in established European distribution channels. When: July 1, 2009 Where: Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom How: A Dutch company purchased insulin needles from a wholesaler in Malaysia, which claimed the needles came from Iran. The needles were subsequently distributed throughout the…

View larger map What: Counterfeit heparin has been linked to the deaths of 81 people and resulted in hundreds of allergic reactions in the United States. Batches of contaminated heparin were also detected in 11 other countries – resulting in as many as 68 more deaths. Reports issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration…

A new stage concept was developed to reliably identify counterfeit tablets which are very similar to the genuine drug product. This concept combines single-point near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and near-infrared chemical imaging (NIR-CI) with statistical variance analysis. The advantage of NIR-CI over NIRS is the potential to determine not only the amount, but also the spatial…

Perhaps it’s an obvious question, but after the recent truck hijacking of generic asthma medication this month in McKinney Texas, we wondered, “Who steals entire truckloads of drugs, and what do they do with them?” It seemed like something right out of a mobster movie. We asked the counterfeit drugs experts on the Partnership’s board…

On July 15, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report detailing how West Africa has become an increasing target for counterfeit drugs. According to the report, as much as 50 to 60 percent of the medicines in this region of the world were found to contain “little or no active ingredients.” The report goes on to explain why these counterfeit drugs are a major public health threat in Africa.

The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) strongly believes that that no one should be able to purchase prescription drugs, including controlled substances, over the Internet without a valid prescription and physician oversight. Last year we sent every member of Congress a postcard that illustrated this face and earlier this year, my colleague Dr. Bryan Liang published a paper in the American Journal of Law & Medicine that highlights how Internet search engines support illegal online drug sales and identified three key ways we can stop “online pharmacies” from peddling their dangerous wares in cyberspace.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the McKinney, Texas, Police Department have reported that on August 7 a tractor-trailer truck containing a 35,760-carton shipment Dey brand generic Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution was stolen in McKinney, Texas. We are concerned that they could make their way to consumers via online pharmacies.